Amateur Hunter Steps Into Tall Grass And Quickly Ends Up Paying The Price

 You should never walk in the woods alone. Even the most experienced hunters and woodsmen aren’t immune to the dangers of the great outdoors, and one wrong move can mean the difference between life and death. For Dana Sanders Jr., all it took was one misplaced step into a patch of tall grass — his life was never the same again.

It began on a cool September day as Dana and his father, Dana Sanders Sr., readied themselves for an afternoon in the woods. Bow season was upon them in Mississippi, and Dana and his dad already had the perfect hunting spot picked out.

Dana Sanders

Nestled on the Sanders family farm in Claiborne County was a brand new food plot, the perfect lure for any unsuspecting deer in search of a bite. Hanging a stand in the nearby trees would almost certainly guarantee them a successful trip.

Mossy Oak

The archers made a beeline for the treeline, and within just a few minutes their stand was mounted and ready to go. But there was a problem: several trees and branches were now blocking a clear shot at the field.

3cooper3 / Reddit

And so, with pole saw in hand, Dana began trimming the shooting lane as his father looked on from above. All the while, Dana made sure not to trip over the piles of discarded brush that sat scattered along the edge of the plot.

North American Whitetail

After an hour’s work, Dana had just one branch to go. He eagerly took a step forward, not bothering to look at the tall grass growing alongside a particularly large brush pile. Then he felt it.

Review Heart

The strike was quick, violent, delivering a sensation unlike any other to his left leg — then the pain hit. Stumbling from the brush, Dana quickly rolled up his pant leg. He could only stare at the sight.

Dana Sanders / Clarion Sanders

Just above his boot were two fang marks, deep, set about an inch apart. As blood began to pour from the wounds, Dana knew he needed to act quickly — and headed right back toward the brush pile.

Pain surging through his leg, Dana eased back into the brush, desperate to identify the snake that’d bit him in order to determine what kind of antivenom he’d need. Sure enough, his attacker lay curled just a few yards away — and it was huge.

Ron DeCloux / Flickr

It was a 6-foot-long timber rattlesnake, one of the largest and deadliest snakes in North America. Its venom was now coursing through Dana’s veins. A few errant branches in his shooting lane had now become the least of his worries.

Brian Broom / Clarion Ledger

Dana Sr. quickly helped his son to their truck and gunned it for the nearest hospital, some 30 minutes away. The pain in Dana’s leg had grown so severe that even his right one began to tremble, though even in his agony a startling realization occurred to him: the hospital wouldn’t have any antivenom.

CBS DFW

As a former volunteer fireman, Dana knew that the antivenom was kept at a location across town, meaning that someone would have to bring it to the hospital. And so, through the pain, Dana manged to call 911 to let the E.R. know he was coming.

Scott Hurley / WLUK

An ambulance met Dana halfway, and by the time he reached the hospital it felt like a steamroller had run him over. Even as the doctors pumped him full of morphine, the pain only continued to increase.

boonchai wedmakawand / Getty Images

The swelling was just as bad, and after just a few hours it spread all the way up to his hip. Doctors even had to remove two 2-inch sections of rotten tissue from his leg to prevent the venom from doing serious damage.

Wikimedia Commons

Fortunately, after 12 vials of antivenom, the swelling began to subside, and the pain killers soon began to work their magic. Dana was released just three days later, though his fateful misstep would cost him more than just some lost time in the hospital.

Dana Sanders

In a literal sense, Dana’s treatment didn’t come cheap. Between the dozen vials of antivenom and high doses of heavy pain meds, Dana walked away with a whopping $440,000 in medical bills — though that was nothing compared to the physical costs.

Toronto Star

For four months afterward, Dana experienced a constant, nagging pain in his lower leg, almost as sharp as the initial bite itself. Even now, some six years later, he still feels the effects.

Louisiana Sportsman

“Where I got bit, my doctor told me it will always be a big nasty sore place. It’s just a big spot that always tingles,” Dana told Clarion Ledger. “I’ve got to wear those diabetic socks. I can’t wear a (typical) sock on that leg and probably never will again. The fluid just goes there.”

Knitapotamus / Flickr

Dana still kicks himself over the life-changing incident, a first for the 49 year old. A career wetlands consultant, Dana maintains that he knew better than to step somewhere without looking first.

Raedeke

“I let my guard down when I normally wouldn’t. In this case I threw caution to the wind and there he was. It just took one time,” Dana shared. “It’s something I’m going to have to deal with and live with from now on. It’ll never go away.”

Louisiana Sportsman

Unfortunately, venomous snakes aren’t the only dangerous reptiles to look out for in the U.S. In a place as sunny and laid back as Florida, no one would expect one of nature’s most dangerous predators to be lurking just within arm’s reach — and we’re not talking alligators.

Troy Harrison / Getty Images

Meet the Burmese Python. The biggest of these beasts can reach a length of 23 feet and weigh over 160 pounds. They will eat anything from mice to adult deer. And as of a couple of decades ago, nobody in Florida even knew about them.

RT

As their name suggests, the reptiles are native to Asia’s tropics, but they were now running wild all over the Everglades. Scientists theorize that following the destruction of Hurricane Andrew, pythons escaped from a zoo and bred like wildfire.

Frank Mazzotti didn’t know quite where the snakes came from, but he was determined to stop them from spreading into densely populated areas, like Miami. The biologist swore to throw everything and the kitchen sink at them. But would that be enough?

NPR

Everglades locals tried all kinds of tricks to root out the serpents. They put snake-sniffing dogs out in the marshes and even set loose radio-equipped “Judas snakes” to hopefully reveal their home base. The pythons only continued to grow.

FL Keys News

Word got around that the reptiles took over an abandoned Nike missile site. While that in and of itself didn’t threaten anyone, Floridians feared that if left unchecked, the pythons would breed at an incredible rate.

The Bohemian Blog

Who knew — it could’ve only been a matter of time until the snakes expanded beyond the missile base and started showing up in places that were more…personal. The stakes were dire, but Frank learned of one group that could help.

Rex Features

Deep in the forests of southern India, the Irula people have mastered snake catching. They see it as an art and take the practice incredibly seriously, even after India has slapped strict regulations on snake trading.

Deccan Chronicle

In recent years, the Irulas have captured poisonous reptiles for the purpose of producing antivenoms. Clearly, there was nobody on Earth more qualified. But how could Floridians convince this tribe to help a community on the other side of the world?

Frank and his herpetologist pals managed to make contact with the Irulas, and to their surprise, the snake-catchers showed interest in helping them. Granted, the Floridians would have to shell out thousands of dollars and agree to some unusual methods.

Miami Herald

Hard as it was to believe, the Irulas didn’t use any state-of-the-art tools for finding and capturing snakes. Instead, their weapon of choice was something found in any garage: a tire iron.

Video Blocks

Contrary to what you might think, they didn’t intend these tire irons for a Simpsons-style Whacking Day. The Irula used them to clear a path through the brush and pick up snakes, but ultimately they tried to capture the reptiles alive when possible.

Simpsons World

So, Frank welcomed the best Irula hunters, Masi Sadaiyan and Vadivel Gopal, to the Everglades. While both men were in their 50s, they were at the top of their game. But the Floridians got nervous when the Irulas said they’d never before hunted snakes so large.

However, Masi and Vadivel smiled when they shared this fact. They were eager for the challenge, the chance to put their skills to the ultimate test. Granted, their brand of animal control was not without its risks.

From the start, the Irula’s tactics puzzled Frank and his friends. They insisted on marching blindly through the thickest part of the swamp. When a snake’s trail ended, Masi and Vadivel made everyone sit down, pray, and smoke a cigarette.

Frank’s hopes began to wane until one of the Irula’s pointed to a shimmer in the mud. Brandishing their trusty tire irons, Masi and Vadivel scooped up a fully-grown python! That was only the beginning.

Mother Nature Network

With a few more captures under their belts, the Irulas fearlessly plunged into an old missile shaft where herpetologists spotted a nest. The sharp-eyed hunters grasped a muscled python tail and spent hours wrestling it out of tree roots.

Miami Herald

In that one afternoon, the hunters pulled out four monstrous pythons from the overgrown missile shaft. They soon brought their total up to 14 over their first two weeks. While the Irulas couldn’t stay in the Everglades forever, they did the next best thing.

Masi and Vadivel shared their wisdom with the local wildlife management team, which never could’ve located these pythons with conventional techniques. The Irula knowledge could stem the invasion, so the Floridians wanted to give them something in return.

Besides paying the Irulas over $4,000 per python, the Floridians wanted to give them the real American experience. In between expeditions, they watched NFL games and ate hot dogs at Arbetter’s, their favorite greasy spoon.

Roadfood Forums

After a month, the Irulas returned to India feeling invigorated by the hunt of their lives. The Floridians knew they were quite fortunate to find experts to turn back the snake invasion, but of course, it wasn’t always possible to have heroes on hand.